Mercenaries: A Mass Effect Tale
by Tom Hodges
Summary: A group of mercenaries work for their share under a shady organization.


Mercenaries: A Mass Effect Story

Jeff Lunt sat, staring at the empty coast line, relaxing at the rear of a small fishing boat. A fishing rod leaned against the side of the boat, line dipped in the water. Nobody actually fished like that on Trident, a small human controlled planet with 95 percent of the surface covered by water. All of the fish were too big to fish for, unless you were trying for what everyone on the planet considered bait. It was the fact that it was more relaxing than getting on a big boat, with a stressed-out panicky team, and hunt after a big one with rumoured sightings of even bigger ones destroying boats.  
Just the same, he didn't even have bait on the line. Just a small weight hung at the end to keep the line taut. It was more for the appearance of a recreational fisherman. A half empty case of beer also helped keep up the appearance, and he enjoyed that part the most. Just the simple fact that the case was full when he left put a smile on his face. But it was just a cover, to keep people from the truth.  
Jeff was an information broker and special operative contact for a secret, and well funded, organization. They had no name, just called themselves the Organization. Their motto, 'If they can't put a name to it, they can't prove it exists'. Very few knew about the Organization, but those that did dubbed them the greatest scientists and ground breakers of a generation. Truthfully though, they didn't do anything special aside from keeping guard over a secret. Their greed however, kept them quiet; waiting for the next big payday to fall in their outstretched arms. The Organization invented a lot of things, and sold it to those aware of their existence. All they asked in return was a large percentage be put in their bank accounts. Those who got to greedy, had accidents. Those who got smart, got a deal with the Organization to share accounts to keep away suspicion of a separate company doing their work, the whole time losing more money than they notice to the organization. If you make billions, who is gonna notice missing millions?  
He took the boat out every time he needed to contact his special operations team. The Organization didn't need much done, but when they did, they had a team that technically didn't work for them. A talented group of individuals with experience and skills that got the jobs done. While they didn't technically work for the Organization, they knew the highest paying jobs came from them. When one contact came forward with a job, and the Organization had the same job for them, often offering pay that was four to five times more than the other contact. They had the freedom to do any other jobs they wanted, without notifying the Organization, but when the Organization called, they knew they had to answer. They were the best of the best, until one of their own went rogue and killed all but two members of the team; whom exterminated the rogue on the spot.  
The two survivors were Tavis Bodhum and Jeremy Evans. Tavis, an eleven year old salarian, 27 in human equivalent, was being groomed from a young age to be in the salarian Special Tasks Group. His family, who had wished he would become a politician, but he wanted otherwise, had close ties to the Dalatrass, so induction seemed to be inevitable. But she then cut all ties with the Bodhum family and blocked his entrance into the STG. Angrily, he left Sur'Kesh and became a merc, but his past stayed close, and his STG friends were closer. Jeremy, a brash human in his late twenties with a tendency to be hot headed, was born on a small colony. He lived there with his parents and sister until a batarian slave raid wiped out the colony. He and three other people survived, his family did not. After what he went through, his attitude might have been considered a bit racist, however this was only made worse after their former colleague's betrayal.  
Some might considered the two of them to be sufficient enough to carry on the Organization's operations, but they needed a team; a new one with Tavis and Jeremy at it's core. While the Organization began the recruitment process, they decided to give Tavis and Jeremy some time off, and grounded them on Trident. The Organization wanted to keep them close, but didn't want them knowing they were watching. They said the cool breeze and ocean air would relieve the stress of killing a former friend, so the both of them got saddled to a boat with regular supply drops and all the booze they could drink. When asked about the rest of the crew that were not on the ground, Jeff replied simply, "We have acquired new tech and are working with the rest of your team to convert it to your ship's systems. They are stationed at our private lab on Noveria." Not at all a lie either.  
Currently Jeff sat waiting, something he was accustomed to doing, for a call from the two mercs. He found a team, a meeting place, and their ship was up to date. All he needed to do was let his veterans know. It wasn't strange for them to take hours to answer their messages, getting drunk seemed to make you ignore what is important, so a nice fishing trip seemed like the place to wait. When his communicator beeped, it startled him a little.  
Without introduction, he announced into the communicator, "Good morning," even though it was late afternoon.  
"Good Morning" a high salarian voice, which could only belong to Tavis, answered. "We got your message, how much time lag will we be having in our talk today?"  
"Instantaneous, we are piggy backing on Citadel channels."  
"How secure?"  
"Tavis, don't you trust me? Highest priority. Encrypted Spectre code, zero delay, if anyone is looking, it will appear as two agents communicating." He paused briefly, "Why do you ask?"  
"Sorry, getting a little, as you humans say, stir crazy. Just happy to hear we are getting off this boat."  
"Ah, well, I have a shuttle picking you up to take you to a bar on Omega, to meet your new team."  
There was a short pause before Tavis asked, "Afterlife?"  
"No, a small bar outside her control."  
"Ok, so she does not find out, makes sense." "No, she already knows about the meeting. We have deals running with Aria, and they have to be handled delicately. Rest assured, Aria won't be a problem, as long as you follow your instructions and don't make her a problem. The rest of the details will be given to you on the shuttle." A movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. The fishing pole bobbed up and down, drawing his full attention. "I gotta go, something on the other line."

Tavis turned the communicator on his omni-tool off and put the device away. He turned toward Jeremy, who was reclining in a fold-out chair, with a pair of high powered binoculars held to his face, staring off in the horizon. Tavis was a five foot tall salarian with slightly green tinted skin. Jeremy was about a foot taller than him, and had reddish brown hair. His usually pale skin was tanned by the ocean sun. "I think you hit it on the head with that one," Jeremy began. "I had a good view of his face. Don't recognize him, but the lips synced up just fine."  
Tavis looked out to where Jeremy was looking, but saw nothing but the large expanse of water surrounding the boat. "Still can't find anything on him, And the only reason why he would ground us so close to him is to keep an eye on us. The question is, is the Organization here?"  
Jeremy stood up and walked to the boat controls. "Don't know. Something had him spooked, he was up and off before he even hung up."  
As Jeremy put the boat in motion, Tavis' omni-tool beeped. He brought up a monitor and started typing away. "Just lost his boats signal, something is blocking it again. If I can triangulate with the last three times, and measure the distance and direction he was heading, I can find out a rough location to find him. In turn, we find out exactly what the Organization is."  
"You could always get your STG buddies to help."  
"They are helping, they were the ones who got him tracked to Trident. Other than that, whenever they find a lead, it vanishes as quickly as it first appeared."  
Jeremy shrugged at the thought, "I'm just glad to be getting off this floodstain of a rock. Don't get me wrong, I love the sea, but enough is enough."  
Tavis turned off the monitor and smiled, "I agree".  
Jeremy chuckled, "Nah, you just can't wait to see your beloved Zara. Most the time on this boat, you looked lovesick."  
"That was seasickness. Besides, salarians do not get love sick, our biology is different to other species."  
"The way you look at her ain't salarian."  
"Well you ain't human, so it works."  
"I am human enough to want to kill me some batarians on out next mission."  
The grin on Tavis' face quickly left. "That's the type of thinking that got us grounded in the first place."  
"It was a batarian that killed our last team. It was a batarian that I thought I knew pretty well. It was a batarian that me and you had a hell of a time fighting for our lives against. So you'll forgive me if I still want to kill a few."  
"Give him a break, the planet his whole family lived on just got destroyed. Wouldn't you go crazy if your homeworld got destroyed?"  
For a second, Tavis thought he was ignoring him, until he noticed his jaw muscles were clenched. Through his teeth, Jeremy said, "That won't happen."  
Deciding it best to drop it, Tavis asked, "What's the first thing you are gonna do when we get on Omega?" Jeremy just smiled.

About a day and a half later, they were sitting in a small Volus ran bar on Omega. It was located in a rundown part of the station, with turian 'enforcers' everywhere. Before they arrived on the station, Tavis did some research and learned a few things. This bar was in an area controlled by the Talon mercenaries, a small turian merc group fighting for their spot on Omega. The bartender was an informant for Aria T'Loak, the so called Queen of Omega, he was positioned there so she could keep an eye on the Talon. This bar was the only place nearby to serve food for every race in the galaxy. When they entered the bar, they weren't surprised to see it busy.  
One of the instructions was to find a specific table, and kick the current patrons off it. The table was filled with a group of salarians, who obviously wouldn't give up their seats if they didn't have to. When Jeremy confronted them, they nearly got hostile, until Tavis whispered something to them. They quietly left. When Jeremy asked what he had said, Tavis simply replied with one word, 'classified.'  
They got settled in, and Jeremy ordered a beer from the bartender. Much to his disappointment, the waiter was a Volus. "So," Jeremy said after taking a swig of his beer, "How do we know what we are looking for?"  
Tavis, glancing every which way, replied, "The instructions said to sit here and wait. Our recruits would drop a key card on the table with a prothean symbol on it, but it never said who we are waiting for. We should pick up between two to eight new recruits. At exactly twenty minutes after the hour, we leave, anybody not here is not gonna come."  
"A card with a password, sounds a bit cloak and dagger to me. This is almost funny, if we weren't in the middle of it." Jeremy laughed.  
"Sounds like Lunt watches too many vids. Anyway, we have company."  
With that, a turian walked up to the table and dropped a shiny metal card on the table. They looked at it and gestured for him to sit. "Larik reporting for duty."  
"Have a seat," Tavis smiled, "I am Tavis Bodhum, and this is Jeremy Evans. Nice to meet you."  
"Likewise," Larik replied.  
"So, Larik, do you have a last name?"  
"Yes."  
Tavis paused, "Ok, what can you tell us about yourself."  
"You already know, you found me. Since you found me, you already know everything you need to know."  
Jeremy cut him off there, "Really, our employer, and we use the term loosely, found you. We just barely even heard about you. All we want to know is what you can do. Fair?"  
Larik sighed, then took a deep breath. "Long range specialist, but efficient at mid range. Not so good at close, but I am still alive. Don't ask me for tech support, not my field."  
"Now, was that so hard?" Jeremy said before taking a drink from his beer.  
Larik gave him a cold stare. "Look, I am not here to make friends. I was offered a job and a place to stay, and that's hard to find for a man in my situation. And before you ask, my situation is private."  
"Duly noted," rang a throaty voice from behind Jeremy and Tavis, a voice that could only belong to a drell. They turned around, but nobody was there. A sharp clink drew them back to the table. A second card sat in the center of the table, and a drell sat next to Larik, with a smirk on his face. "Losifus Kryton, assassin extraordinaire, and master of illusion."  
"Yay," Jeremy snorted, "A magician, show me a trick." Jeremy lifted his beer to his mouth to chug the rest of it, then the bottle shattered, dumping the rest over his shirt. On the table in front of Jeremy, a disc the size of a dime spun to a stop.  
"Ta da," laughed the drell.  
The shocked look never left his face as he said, staring at his shirt, "I don't know whether I like you or hate. You showed me a trick when I asked, but you spilled my beer." He looked up from his shirt at Losifus. "You gotta show me how to do that."  
"I was trained from a young age by the hanar, but they turned on me after my first few kills. They used me to start a war and take the fall. I am skilled in all weapons, hand to hand, and biotics." He paused briefly, "Do I have time to eat?"  
Jeremy looked at his omni-tool, "We leave in ten minutes, no later."  
A drunk, ageing, batarian stumbled into a chair at the far end of the table and stared off in the distance, every eye looking in a different direction. After what seemed like a while, Jeremy yelled, "Get out of here, this doesn't concern you."  
Startled, the batarian jumped in his seat, eyes coming into focus. "Ranad Kad'ranh, I hear...you are, um, recruiting?" he slurred.  
"Sorry, private party, batarian. Membership only," Jeremy gestured for him to leave.  
Ranad looked at him confused, looked around, and started searching himself. He pulled out a rusty card and through it on the table, rust flakes falling from it as it hit the table. "Happy, human?"  
"Fuck," Jeremy whispered under his breath as he stared at the card. Noticing that it wasn't rusted over, he looked at Tavis, "This is red sand, are we allowing junkies now?"  
Tavis shrugged, "Lunt knows what he's doing, I hope."  
Ranad looked at Jeremy, "You have a problem with me, take it up with me. You will be bloody on the ground before you even leave your chair." He looked surprisingly sober than when he entered.  
Jeremy stood up and stared at him, anger smeared his face. "there is not enough alcohol on Omega to get me to your level," he turned to Tavis, "I don't like junkies, and I don't like batarians. This is a disaster and you know it."  
Tavis stared back, "You need to calm down, your attitude is not helping matters. Now sit down and shut up. We do not have time for your racist attitude to get in the way." Jeremy's face showed more anger, and he turned and walked toward the bar. "Give him a little while, our last team was betrayed by a batarian colleague who went crazy."  
Ranad paused a bit, looking wasted again, "I understand, I am an ex-slaver. I have done a lot of bad in my life, especially to humans, and regret all of it. I do not know when the last time I was sober, but it won't effect my job. I have never failed a mission, even in this condi...connn. Even while drunk. By the way, my name is Ranad Kad'ranh."  
A loud crash came from the direction of the bar that drew everyone's attention, but it was too crowded to see anything. Tavis started, "We will see how good you are, but," When Tavis turned back around, Ranad was passed out, face down, hanging off the table.  
Losifus laughed. "Is your team always this entertaining?"  
Tavis shook his head, "I hope not, but he grows on you."  
The drell nodded, "Like a mold."  
An asari walked up and angrily threw her card on the table, and sat next to Tavis. "My name is Lesella."  
"You seem a bit angry," Tavis said. "Will this be a constant thing?"  
She looked at him and took a calming breath, "Sorry, there was just some ass human who smelled like he had too much beer at the bar, pissed me off, had to hit him around a bit." Losifus started to laugh. "Just don't like people hitting on me all the time, they think 'oooo, she's an asari, this will be fun'. I swear these dancers give us all a bad name."  
Jeremy walked back to the table, nursing a bottle of beer to his head that blocked most of his view. "Tavis, you'll never guess. I found the only asari who doesn't like a little flirting." He pulled the bottle to take a drink, and noticed the asari sitting there with an angry look on her face. "Ahh great, this is not good." He shook his head and pointed to Ranad, "wake up four eyes, we are leaving."  
As everybody got up, Losifus asked, "Where are we going?"  
"The docks," Tavis answered.

As they left the bar, the group finally discovered why they were on such a tight schedule. Over in a neighbouring block, a shootout between the Talon and the Blue Suns kicked off. As he and Jeremy led the new team in the opposite direction to the fire-fight, Tavis surmised in passing that this scuffle probably had something to do with Lunt's deal. Continuing towards the docks, pockets of conversation began to spring up amongst the group. Tavis told them about his near STG career, and how the Dalatrass messed with his chances.  
Lesella told them about her past as an orphaned infant taken in by an asari commando and her quarian bond mate. She learned all her training from them, her mom taught her how to use her biotics and weapons, her dad taught her all about infiltration and hacking. She told them that her quarian upbringing had left her a bit uncomfortable with the things normal asari are known for, such as dancing and showing off her body.  
Losifus explained more of his training and how the Hanar turned on him; how he was sent to go into a small settlement and kill everybody, but stopped himself when he noticed it was full of volus families. After a little hunting, he found a krogan camp a mile away. His objective was to supposedly kill the families and let the krogan take the fall, in turn inciting the Turians to take extreme measures. Abandoning his mission, he went back home to confront those who gave him his assignment, only to find out it was part of a larger conspiracy. Not knowing how deep it ran, he left the Hanar, and went back to the krogan camp. He told them what was happening, and prepared them to stop the next attack. 18 hours later, batarian slavers, hired to finish Losifus' mission, began attacking the volus settlement and it's surrounding area to draw the krogan out. The krogan team stopped the slavers and hunted them down, but never revealing who tipped them off. The reputation & honor of Aralahk Company was cemented from that day onwards.  
Ranad and Larik opted out of telling about their past, and Jeremy only cared to mention their last mission, and how they had to kill their squad mate to stay alive. He finished by threatening Ranad to stay in line or else. However, Tavis quickly silenced him.  
Upon arriving at the docks, the group were greeted by a large, block shaped ship waiting for them. Whilst the ship officially had no name, in the past, Tavis and Jeremy had always referred to it as 'The Block' for visually obvious reasons. It was larger than a frigate, but smaller than a cruiser. Tavis went on to explain that it was a re-purposed, four level, high security prison transport. On the top level had the bridge, mess hall, communication center, and bulk armory. The second level was where the crew stayed, half of the cells on that level had been refurbished into rooms for the crew; each with a bed and a toilet. The other half stayed as cells, for those jobs where you someone alive. The showers were on the same level towards the back of the crew's quarters, which got Lesella nervous at the thought of sharing showers. The third and fourth floors were combined into a big shuttle bay that only had two ships in it, a small Kodiak shuttle, and a modified Mantis gunship. Tavis pointed out that each of the rooms that were taken had a sign on it with their names, and could pick any other room they wanted, and no part of the ship was off limits.  
Upon entering, they all proceeded to the quarters to deposit their gear. Ranad found the first room he got to and passed out as soon as he shut the door. Jeremy quickly changed his beer covered clothes and headed to the shuttle bay with Tavis. Losifus, Larik, and Lesella all decided to explore different parts of the ship.  
Jeremy and Tavis entered the shuttle bay to find it almost the way it had been when they left. The two spacecrafts were in their respective spots, next to the bay doors, leaving lots of room for other things. There was a padded mat near one corner of the bay, away from the doors, for some sparring if they were inclined. Next to that was a couple of couches, a fridge and a big vid monitor to relax at, all of which belonged proudly to Jeremy, so he left Tavis to relax there.  
Tavis walked to the gunship, and to the far side where a quarian was sitting on a wing playing with a datapad with her back facing him. The moment she realized he was there, she jumped, bringing her hands immediately up to her face, and began hurriedly fiddling with the front of her helmet. "Zara, what ya doing?"  
"Really?" she asked, not putting down the data pad, "No hello, good to see you, its been a while? Just straight to work, is that right? How rude you have gotten without me to keep you in line."  
"That's what you get for leaving me on that boat with Jeremy. It was miserable, he drank all the alcohol, I was left with fishy sea water."  
"Maybe I should yell at him for your salty attitude,"  
"That was a terrible pun," he looked up at her. "Good to see you, is that better?"  
"Yes it is. I am just looking for a few new upgrades for my baby here,"  
He pulled himself up onto the wing, with his legs hanging off the front of it. "Did I just see you without your visor on?"  
"Maybe," she put down the datapad and leaned against to side of the gunship.  
"Are you trying to kill yourself? Did you miss me that badly?"

"How sweet, you do care. Or Jeremy's sense of humor is rubbing off on you. No, I am not trying to kill myself, but sometimes it feels that way. When we were stationed on Noveria for the upgrades, I realized germs do not grow well in the cold climate. So I decided to try something, so one day I walked outside, took my helmet off, and took a deep breath. I was sick for a week. After I got better, I did it again. After a month I stopped getting sick, so I did it inside around the hangar when I was alone, and got sick again, but a lot worse. I got better and did it again. And I kept doing it." Zara'Toth nar Neema was a great mind, and a greater engineer. She could fix any problem that was brought her way, and some no one knew was a problem. She was praised on the Neema, her birth ship, for improving maintenance standards and saving countless lives with her repairs. She did all that before she turned seventeen, so she petitioned for early pilgrimage, and got it on her birthday. She vowed to return only when she got her own frigate. Most of her spare time was spent working on her gunship, or finding new upgrades for it. When on the job, she was the best gunship pilot money could buy.  
"That sounds dangerous."  
"Still get sick around new people and places, but I can work on this ship practically naked."  
"Naked you say?" Tavis grinned.  
Zara lightly kicked him in the side. "Definitely got Jeremy's sense of humor while you were gone. All I am saying is no more worrying about snagging my suit and getting a puncture, and can see in tight spaces without a camera to look to the side. My repairs could improve a lot, and you thought I could fly this thing before, without a helmet I am even better."  
Tavis smiled at her then looked at her gunship. "So what did you do to your gunship?"  
"We were able to improve the eezo core and cockpit, I can fly and navigate in deep space and then go planet side without worrying about re-entry burn-up. Miniature Thanix guns were installed beside the main gun for anti-vehicle fire-fight. The cockpit can be sealed off from the rest of the ship, and an area to transport crew or supplies has been added. We can now carry an extra four more people than we could before. Still looking for more upgrades, want to see what I can do?"  
Tavis nodded thoughtfully, "But what about the Block?"  
"Well they got a lot of new tech upstairs mostly. When the Alliance got hold of & grounded that huge Cerberus frigate that took out the Collectors, they took it apart to analyze all of the Cerberus tech that was fitted. Apparently the Organization had someone inside Alliance R&D who passed on the ship's schematics. We have a state of the art Quantum Entanglement Communicator in the comms room that is tied in directly to Lunt. Thanix cannons have now been fitted as main armaments to compliment the Javelin missiles and GARDIAN lasers. The shuttle bay can now be sectioned off in case of a hull breach too."

Elsewhere, Larik had decided to head to the mess hall, and Losifus decided to check out the upper deck. The QTE communicator impressed him, the mess hall didn't. The weapons storage had more of a variety than he thought; only less weapons and more explosives and thermal clips. But it was the bridge he was truly interested in. When he got there, he found something he didn't expect. A hanar was sitting in the only chair in the room. "Who are you?" he asked the jelly, noticing the pipes and hoses leading from the chair into the floor.  
"This one is called Ralithes, and he assumes that you must be Losifus Kryton. Trained alongside Thane Krios and the betrayer of this one's people." The hanar said not turning to face him.  
"You know a lot, don't you, hanar?" He said with a sneer, and moved to Ralithes' side. "What else do you know?"  
"This one knows enough to hurt some people."  
"Really?" Losifus got up closer to what would be the hanar's face. "Is this one threatening me?"  
"This one does not make threats. This one is just letting you know, this one is watching. You better leave this room, drell."  
Losifus snorted in disgust, and slowly left the bridge. Before he shut the door, he said, "And I have nothing to hide."

Lesella went to the shower to check it out. It was as she feared. Eight open faucets with no separating wall, except for a chest high wall that was an island with shelves. She did not like the thought of sharing a shower with others walking in whenever. So she decided to go to the shuttle bay to ask some questions. She noticed Tavis talking with a quarian on the wing of a gunship. Not wanting to interrupt, she looked for Jeremy. He was sitting on a couch in the corner, eating a sandwich, watching a vid. Nervous, she walked over to the other couch and sat in silence for a bit.  
"Sorry for hitting you at the bar," she said sheepishly.  
Jeremy swallowed his bite and took a gulp from a glass of water sitting on a small end table. "Relax, not the first time I've been knocked around." He smiled at her and took another bite. "Besides, we are going to be working together, gotta get along."  
She relaxed into her seat, "I had a few questions."  
"Ask away."  
She thought for a bit about what she wanted to ask first. "Why a prison ship?"  
"Not many people know that it was decommissioned, so people don't ask questions. The smart ones know it's not a prison ship, and know not to ask questions. They modified it for what they deem necessary, and realized they didn't need all the room, so we have a lot of extra space to do what we will."  
"Ok, but why not give us our own showers?"  
"They were already there, they probably felt it wasn't important to change that." He took another bite. "If you have a problem, you could always put up a curtain. Nobody else has worried about it, we have always left it alone when we heard it in use, except for that one time." She got a questioning look on her face, but left it alone. "We got put on this one mission, but ended up in a crawler nest. Messy fight. We cared more about getting clean after that fight than privacy. Never want to do that again." He continued to eat his sandwich, and she just stared, thinking of more questions.  
She started speaking, but was cut off by a hanar over the intercom. "There is an incoming call on the QTE. This one recommends every one meet in the communication center immediately."


End file.
